Examples
Food riots and grain seizures
Invasions and organized poaching
Destruction of gates, machinery
Rough music/Chivaree
Forced illumination
Mock trials
Features:
Emulating or co-opting authority: mock trials and effigies
Appeals to mediating authorities: guilds, churches, village leaders make claims not classes or identity groups
Celebrations and clubs as cover: parades and festivals lend plausible deniability to contention
Localized and direct: if you don’t like the loom, you smash it.
Parochial: mostly specific to a particular culture.
On the 16th August I went to Stockport Road about eleven or a little after, and I met a great number of persons advancing toward Manchester with all the regularity of a regiment, only they had no uniform. They were all marching in file, three abreast. They had two banners with them. There were persons by the side, acting as officers and regulating the files. The order was beautiful indeed. - Francis Phillips (Manchester Merchant; 1819)
Belgium 1800-1900
| Decade | Meetings | Demonstrations | Petitions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1830s | 4 | 2 | 7 |
| 1840s | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 1850s | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 1860s | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| 1870s | 1 | 11 | 0 |
| 1880s | 0 | 59 | 0 |
| 1890s | 2 | 57 | 0 |
Many elements in the social movement repertoire are now considered entirely routine, while others are available but non-normative.
Three features:
“We are many, we are worthy and unjustly disadvantaged, we agree among ourselves, we are committed, disciplined and legal.” - Tilly 1994
WUNC displays are a defining feature of social movements
They operate by generating sympathy/support from other members of the public, rather than through direct actions. Symbolism is central.
Neat clothing, calm demeanor, emphasis on respectability or social status (mothers, clergy, soldiers)
Mothers of the Plaza De Mayo protest in Argentina
Uniform clothing or banners, coordinated chants or songs
Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement protest
Large crowd sizes, petitions with lots of signatures, social media activity
Women’s March (and Trump inauguration crowd)
Lunch counter sit in at Woolworth’s in Mississippi
Movements often act to encourage the perception of diversity, and this plays a role in generating public support
Movements clearly borrow and re-use certain tactics, but what factors influence the chances that a new tactic will be taken up by others?
Sarah Soule explored this question in a 1997 research paper on the tactics of anti-apartheid protesters in the U.S.
1985-1990: Students at 46 different universities erected “Shantytowns” to protest South African Apartheid or demand university divestment
Rapid spread without direct coordination.
Potential routes for diffusion:
Direct: tactical spread through direct interactions (like a coordinating committee)
Indirect/Non-relational: spread through indirect linkages of shared identity or culture (if I see people like me doing something, I’ll also do it myself)
Data: All four-year, nondenominational, non-specialty, nonprofessional colleges and universities in the US that had some form of investment in South Africa
Dependent Variable: in each year, has college \(n\) had a shantytown protest? (ultimately, the outcome to be measured is the probability of having a shantytown protest by time \(t\)
Independent Variable(s):
| University | Time | Has shantytown? | University-specific variables (ex: 1985 enrollment) | “Proximity” (ex: % with same prestige level) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 1985 | No | 35,000 | 1% |
| A | 1986 | No | 35,000 | 10% |
| A | 1987 | Yes | 35,000 | 20% |
| B | 1985 | Yes | 12,000 | 5% |
In a 2012 paper, David Wang and Sarah Soule look at the effects of collaboration on the spread of tactics using the dynamics of collective action data
They find that when two SMOs participate in events together, they are more likely to borrow tactics from one another in later protests.